Hoovers Used in Schools Back in the Day

[kirbytradition7]

In my elementary, junior high, and high school years (1982-1994) in the USA, I remember seeing lots of Hoover uprights in the classroom. I even used one as part of after-school work crew in high school (I went to a small high school whose students were all involved in cleaning up everyday after school).

I tend to think of them as Convertibles, but I'm not sure. In my later school years, I remember more squarish hoods on them (making them not Convertibles, which had rounder hoods).

What Hoover models were popular in US schools back then?

How about your memories? What vacuums do you remember being used at school in your young days?

I'm sure I never saw a Kirby or anything like that at school

kirbytradition7

 

[kirbyultimateg]

Schools in my area back in the day used commercial Sanitaire/Eureka F&G uprights, commercial Hoover Convertible uprights, commercial Hoover Elite uprights, commercial Hoover Conquest uprights.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

They also used commercial Royal All Metal uprights and residential Kirby uprights.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Most of the time, the vacuum cleaners used at all my schools were Royal Commercial uprights. I only remember seeing a Hoover or two at both Concord Elementary and Oak Grove Elementary.

~Ben

 

[caligula]

It wasn't a Hoover,

but when my mother, grandmother and I took a tour of Nyack Boy's school in Nyack, New York in the spring of 1958, the headmaster turned to me and asked if I had any questions. "Yes" I said, "what vacuum cleaner do you use here?" He took me to a closet, opened the door and there was a General Electric Roll Easy. For years after that I wanted one, and finally got an exact match in 1994.

The General Electric Roll Easy is on the next to last shelf, far right. On the left of this is the General Electric Swivle Top of the early 1950's.

 

[mieles7]

My school uses the most basic sanitaire model and proteam backpack vacs.

 

[beko1987]

My primary school had several aged (back in the early 90s) sebo's or lindhauses (can't remember which) and several Henrys.

Secondary school had loads of Henrys and basils, every colour too.

Can't remember college, never stayed late enough to see the cleaners. Sure I saw a numatic (Edward size) kicking around.

 

[cam2s]

School vac

The first school I went to was just a small county school. They had a Kirby, I believe it was a Heritage II. I would stay after school and the teacher would let me vacuum the room for her! The elementary school I went to in my later years had a Hoover Elite, which eventually got replaced with a Riccar Commercial. The high school that I'm teaching at now uses Lindhaus machines.

 

[caligula]

Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut,

now Choate/Rosemary Hall, had three major brands. From 1930 to 1968, Alexander B. Rowan was responsible for every vacuum cleaner the school had. These were only brands he would buy. Electrolux, Hoover, and Kirby.

And who was he? my maternal grandfather. I got to play with any of these I wanted, most of which were in the various storerooms.

I was one lucky boy and a very happy one.

Here's my grandpa and I in the summer of 1975, a few months before he died.

 

[briankirbyclass]

When my mother enrolled me in first grade,(1972-73 school year, Lawrence Lawson Grade School in Sparta Wisconsin) she told the teacher (who was a very sweet lady) that i liked Vacuums, so the first day of the school the teacher told me it would be MY job to vacuum the Library carpet! (i was thrilled!,,little old ME had a job!,,which i didnt hear her give any job to any of the other kids)
This was a corner area of the large classroom she called the "Library" that had a large piece of shag carpet for us to sit on, while the teacher read to us.
The rest of the classroom was hard tile/concrete.
Every few weeks, The teacher would then have me stay after school, or at recess, and let me go down the hall to the janitor's closet and bring out the Hoover Convertible and wheel it back to the classroom and use it on the shag.
The classroom was at the far end of the hallway from the Janitors closet, so this was a pretty good hike!
Im sorry i dont know the model numbers but that Convertible was the commercial model from the 1960s that had the blue or aqua colored hood, and a large canvas/felt type heavy cloth dump out bag.
That teacher was a Sweet lady, will never forget her and how nice she was to me.(VERY FEW people were sympathetic or gave a hoot to a 5-6 yr old kid that was in love with Vacuum Cleaners!)
Her name was Mrs. Fuenger,,,pronounced Finger! Long since passed away, but sure not forgotten.

 

[kirbyvertibles]

well my school years were 1990-2003 We had starting out many red sanitaire with red shakeout bag. Not many rooms had carpet but a few did. One teacher had her own vacuum and it was the black f-g boss. For the halls they had a yellow and grey nss pig that always sat at the end of the hall but I don't recall it ever being used. Sometime in the mid 90's they traded all of the sanitaires in and bought Dirt Devil MVP clean air with they type c bag system. When my niece started going there I got to go to all of the Daddy day's events at the school with her because she doesn't have a Dad so Unkie was a good replacment, anyhow I peeked in the closet and they were at that time using bagless dirt devils from walmart. Last time I was there before she left that school I noticed they were using Tornado Karcher machines and I asked the janitor about the nss he said they never used it so he took it home.

 

[rugsucker]

vacs in school?

I'm really not that old(or am I?)but my elementary school,which was modern,had 99.9% tile.The exception was one teachers room(not mine)with a small rug and her personal Elux Mo S that must have been replaced with a newer Lux at home.They did use large buffers along with 3 foot push brooms and entrace mats with metal grids that caught most dirt.

 

[nycwriter]

You people ...

... had CARPETING in your schools??

 

[kenmore81]

In my elementary school when I started in 1986 we had carpet in half of the kindergarten class and the janitor would occasionally come in with a Hoover commercial with the decade type hood in cream and brown with an orange shake out bag. By the next year they had switched to the blue SingerKenmore/Royobi made PowerFlite with 6 carpet hight and headlight. For my 6th grade year 1993 they had got a few Sanitare. In the 2nd and 4th grade Id got to vacuum the class area rug but other than grade K rooms none of the classrooms had a rug unless the teacher had one for the reading corner. The office and entryways had just heavy carpet mats to vacuum.

 

[xraytech]

In elementary school all the classrooms and the library had chestnut brown commercial carpet and the hallways were beige linoleum. They used at the time newer Hoover Conquests(late 80s-early 90s models) The elementary school was built in 1988 and I entered kindergarten in 1991.

The high school was built in 1964 as the old high school was going to be used to consolidate the 10 very small elementary schools into one.
The hallways were all a black and gray terrazzo and the classrooms still maintained their original 2 tone linoleum floors each room having a different and usually intricate pattern.
The only places there with carpet was the offices and the library, I believe they used a red and chrome sanataire.

Mind you I went to a very small public school, when I graduated the district had almost 800 kids enrolled K-12, that number has since decreased. I graduated with a class of 44

 

[nycwriter]

Schools ...

... should have checkerboard linoleum everywhere, the way God Intended!

 

[kirbyvacuum]

Vacuums

Hi AllIn the school where i was Head custodian for 32 years we used Hoover Upright (918) Kirby Heritage2 Kirby g3. The Kirbys were much better for us. The big problem with the Hoover 918 was when you carried the cleaner from one floor to another unless you held the Hoover straight up while going up the stairs dirt would come out all over the stairs. Ok that was my vacuum story Doug

 

[countryguy]

There was not a stitch of carpeting in either the elementary or high schools that I attended. Carpeting was not practical in winter when kids with their boots were tracking snow inside.

Gary

 

[vacuumman206]

school vacuums

well lets see. A "developmental Kindergarten" I went to had a legacy in the janitor's closet the one time I saw the door open. My first elementary school had a plethora of vacs for the school area; cheap kenmores (panasonic remakes), a couple eureka 1934A's, a convertible I think and something else, probably another older f&g upright. The rest of the building used commercial sanitaire f&g's. my next elementary school was rather small and to the best of my knowledge, only had one vacuum, a Windsor versamatic. A couple teachers had little stick vacs for quick pick ups but that was it. I can't remember a darn thing from what was used in middle school. In high school they used versamatics mainly, and I think I saw a sanitaire or two floating around every now and then. In college, the Chemistry building uses Advances, the Architecture and commons buildings have the top model sensors from a couple years back, and I believe the liberal arts building has sanitaires.I've also seen a couple back pack vacs used in the commons building/dining room. When I was in high school I got to use one of the windsors because my last class of the day had one devoted to the room because it was all carpet, and I always volunteered to do the semi-daily vacuuming.From then on I liked the design quietness, and awkward sound of the versamatic. And I happily own 2 now.

 

[Deleted member 1090]

reply

when i was in grade 2 at the end of the year whe had to clean the class room and the teacher got this huge orange vacuum think it was a husky or some hting any how big plastic shop vac i vacuum my desk ( oh my! i get to use the vacuum really ? yay ! ) i was trill then i ask if i could vacuum the other desk and she said yes . Jackpot i thought then i vacuum the class rug which was in the reading to the children corner of the class yeah one nice lady she was never forget that day i think the vacuum was a tasky orange vac that teacher made my day for sure there i was vacuuming away like no tomorow the assitant teacher notice i was doing a good job and let me vac a few more desk before taking the vacuum back to the janitor what a great way to end the year

 

[lillylux]

I remember a big black Hoover Commercial. It had a frame just like a model 29, but had a smallish, square motor. It had a full size "H Master Delux" shake out bag. The bottom was crackle gray and the rest was black. It was extremely heavy (I gave it a try and you could feel the agitator in the carpet! in later years my school had an Advance upright with two motors. It looked kind of like an oversized Hoover DAM, and had a very long cord. I also remember Kirby's from 516 to Classic.

 

[earlieone]

My grammar school had an American Lincoln Super Sweep. Of course I would always come back after school and help vacuum the carpets with the janitor. At the time I thought is was a complete piece of junk, always throwing the belt and knocking the cap off. Little did I know it would become a rare machine. I should have grabbed it when it was replaced with a Hoover square hood commercial. Don’t remember what my middle school had. High school had only carpet in the library. My JR year I worked in the library and would occasionally get to vacuum upon the librarians request. They had a Dayton wide track(basically a sanitaire) and a Clarke wide area vacuum. I love the big Clarke and it would drive the librarian crazy that I didn’t grab the “normal” looking vacuum

 

[vinvac]

Our school used Royals for many years. Then they went to Hoover and had many problems. The Royals lasted for 10 years plus, they replaced the Hoover Conquests at least every two years. The very first one they purchased lasted less than six months.

I think they use Windsors now with onboard tools. Our entire building was carpeted at the high school. Grade school had area rugs in each room. They kept the Royals for that building and were still in use when we built the new building in in the mid 90's.

They also had a Hoover Comericial Porta Power that did withstand the test of time.

 

[marks_here]

When I went to school

Elementary school they were using the heavy duty hoover's with the hight control under the machine. In middle school they were using advance, clarke and super-sweep (the dark green ones, some with white outer bag paper bag systems & others with the dump out bags) and in high school they had super-sweep and lincoln. Mark

 

[tylerawells]

For my entire K-12 career, 1999-2011, we used Sanitaire uprights, the red and chrome kind with a headlight. Last year, I lived in an on campus residence hall, and the lady who vacuumed our hallways (which were full carpet), had what appeared to be a SEBO but it was rebadged with the name Tennant. It was very noisy, and I remember I did have classes starting till two in the afternoon, and sometimes I'd be asleep when she came down the hall, and got the thing right up by my door and it woke me up. I now have an apartment which is medium carpet everywhere - and I use an Oreck Graphite for it.

 

[anthony]

vacs in school

there were no carpets in my school however ther was a vacuum cleaner it was a huge thing the size of a oil drun with two motors on top with wheels and a handle [rather ilke a pram would have]the hose was about twice the length of a normal vac wish i could remember the name that was on the front it was a very quiet machine even with both motors running

 

[kenkart]

Believe it or not!

When I was in first grade, 1971, my school had a few carpeted rooms, The first time i saw the vacuum I was dumbfounded, I had never seen a Kenmore upright but there it was,, a new hardbody Kenmore!!!

 

[tolivac]

In the schools I attended don't remember what vacuums were there-they had hard tile floors.Janitors dry mopped the floors.

 

[ryry_87]

My nursery had a Hoover Junior 1346a, I remember the bag was so full it had like a huge solid ball of dust in the bottom of it.

then my primary school and secondary had Premiere Mini 175's….